News headlines in March 2012, page 22

More than a decade of efforts to promote closer socioeconomic cooperation among the 15 nations of the Caribbean Community are threatened by stagnant funding and a grim global financial situation, experts warned here.

News stories about satellite photographs suggesting efforts by Iran to 'sanitise' a military site that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said may have been used to test nuclear weapons have added yet another layer to widely held suspicion that Iran must indeed be hiding a covert nuclear weapons programme.

Two Spanish lawyers have launched a campaign on social networking sites to prise out information about Euribor, the reference interest rate used for calculating mortgage payments in Spain, and to draw attention to the lack of transparency surrounding the way the rate is set.

Reports of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s planned visit to Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Gautam Buddha, and a UNESCO World Heritage site in Nepal in April 2012, have caused a mixture of excitement and apprehension in Kathmandu.

Women victims of domestic violence in a city in Argentina will be given an electronic device with a panic button that will bring them immediate assistance from the police.

Germany is capable of producing as much solar energy as the rest of the world together. But now the German government is proposing dramatic cuts in subsidies for solar panels. They say consumer demand is so high it can no longer support the technology.

As non-governmental organisations question the relevance of the World Water Forum being held here this week and slam its 'corporate' nature, the United Nations says that a coordinated approach to managing and allocating water is critical.

Since it first hit the airwaves more than 50 years ago, the University of the Philippines (UP)'s campus radio has evolved into a community broadcaster, serving as the voice of the people.

The High Court of Justice in Israel has annulled the 2002 Tal Law that had allowed Yeshiva students - scholars of Jewish religious texts - to avoid an otherwise mandatory service in the Israeli army. While politicians on the left and right welcome the court’s decision, the Haredim community considers it an assault on their way of life.

The gentle waves of Weligama bay that lap at the small, tight-knit fishing village of Kaparratota, 140 km south of Colombo, can be deceptive.